Month: March 2007

One of the more loyal readers of the site, nicknamed Jackie wrote about her experience giving a hands-on healing session to her acquaintance, freeing him from pain in his hands. Jackie selected to post her story as a comment to the article Belief levels and the path of a healer which I wrote more than a year ago about how people become healers. In her comment she refers to an advice I gave her in article Feeling other people’s pain. There are some many great comments on this article as well. She’s also asked for another advice in article Jackie asks for advice. If you haven’t been following her conversation I strongly suggest you read her stories since they are really interesting and sincere, in my...

I’ve been contacted and asked to promote two events, one in US and other in UK. Below is the information for both of them as it was passed to me. If you don’t want to receive such posts in future, say so in the comments to this post and I won’t post such news again. First event: As part of Northampton Museum and Art Gallery’s new exhibition on superstition, “Unlucky for some”, there will be a weekend of talks on Friday 13th and Saturday 14th April. Native psycho-geographer, occultist and legendary graphic novel writer Alan Moore will discuss “Magical Northampton” on Saturday 14th from 2:00-4:00pm. University of Northampton parapsychologist David Luke will discuss “The psychology of superstition” on Friday 13th evening 7:00-8:30pm, and again on Saturday 14th from 1:00-2:00pm. Charge: Friday – £3 (inc. refreshments), Saturday – £2. Booking essential please contact Northampton Museum and Art Gallery, Guildhall Road, on 01604 838110, or at museums@northampton.ac.uk. The exhibition runs from 7th April – 20th May. “Magical Northampton” – Alan Moore (Saturday 14th April, 2-4pm) Native psychogeographer, occultist and legendary graphic novel writer Alan Moore was “born in Northampton in 1953 and never left”. Alan will discuss local superstitions, myths and fables recreating the magical landscape of the town and its shire. “You Never Know Your Luck: The psychology of superstition” – David Luke (Friday 13th April, 7-8:30pm, and Saturday 14th...

An article in technicianonline.com posted an article titled ESP research a dying trend. In this article they first present an interesting case of twin telepathy: Since age 6, Bryan and James Williams, twins, have been able to read each other’s minds—to an extent. Bryan, sophomore in agricultural education, said if asked to choose a number between one and 10, his brother will guess it correctly every time. In addition to this, he said when his twin is struggling, he can sense it. “If he’s ever in a bad situation, I can feel something,” he said. James, a sophomore in chemical engineering, agreed and said he gets a “weird feeling” when his brother is in trouble, but nothing as specific as sudden knowledge of a certain injury. Then, they write that it seems that ESP research is a dying field with prominent labs being closed (PEAR lab, doing mind over matter research in Princeton University, closed last month). The article refers to the beginnings of ESP research by J. B. Rhine at Duke University from the 1920ies and his book “Parapsychology” published in 1957 to define PK and ESP. The article also quotes Douglas Gillan, the psychology department head at N.C. State, which states that the department focuses on “normal everyday perception” in its research and instruction, and said he is not an expert in the field of parapsychology. Yet...

In a new research, conducted at University of Pennsylvania’s Division of Geriatric Medicine, Transcendental Meditation ® (TM) , a popular mediation practice, can significantly reduce the severity of congestive heart failure. “The results of this study indicate that transcendental meditation can be effective in improving the functional capacity and quality of life of congestive heart failure patients” said Ravishankar Jayadevappa, PhD, lead author and Research Assistant Professor in Penn’s Division of Geriatric Medicine. “These results also suggest long-term improvements in survival in these individuals.” This present finding is consistent with previous research demonstrating that TM reduces factors that contribute to the cause or progression of heart failure, such a high blood pressure, stress, metabolic syndrome, left ventricular hypertrophy (enlargement of the heart) and severity of atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries). According to the study authors, TM most likely improves heart failure by reducing sympathetic nervous system activation associated with stress that is known to contribute to the failing heart. So, once again meditation has been shown to positively affect the body. Some previous articles on this site about the benefits of meditation can be found in: Meditation leads to happiness research shows Yoga and meditation help sleep better Meditation and neuroscience research Benefits of meditation Material for this article was taken from Medical News...

Now, that the huge wave of visitors (about 50 thousands) coming to see Shannan and his spoon bending has (mostly) passed, leaving an enormous amount of almost totally negative comments in the relevant posts, I can move forward with more relevant posts. I’d like to ask you, the visitors, about a theme which I only little touched on this blog, and that’s the topic of psychic readings by mediums. Personally, I haven’t really had a reading done for me, so I can’t tell you my experiences on that but a close relative of mind had a psychic medium supposedly contact with her recently (at that time) deceased husband and did a 3-hour long session with her, passing messages from him to her. During the session, she first verified the identity of the spirit both by describing him as she perceived him and by passing details of their life. She described the late husband very much the way he looked during his 20ies and also told my relative several details of their life together from the early days, such as the kind of suit he was on the wedding and some details from the structure of their previous home. Of course, none of the details could be known a-priori by the medium since she and my relative weren’t acquainted beforehand. She then passed several more messages related to his death...